Investing.com-- The S&P 500 notched another record close Wednesday, in a holiday-shortened session as a slew of weaker economic data boosted hopes for sooner rate cuts, a day ahead of the July 4 holiday.
At 13:00 ET (17:00 GMT), the S&P 500 climbed 0.5% to new closing record of 5,534.63. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 24 points, or 0.1%, t and the NASDAQ Composite jumped 0.8%, higher to fresh record close.
The main Wall Street indices are set for a shortened trading day on Wednesday ahead of Thursday's Independence Day holiday, and come off strong gains on Tuesday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell flagged some progress in cooling inflation.
Economic data in negative surprise to boost rate cut hopes; Fed minutes eyed
The minutes of the Fed’s June meeting will be released latter in the session at 14:00 ET, with many eager for further clues on the central bank's thinking on monetary policy and inflation.
Investors will be looking for additional guidance as to "the Committee’s assessment of the balance of risks, fears of upside inflationary pressures and further insight into the downgrade to rate cut expectations," Stifel said in a Wednesday note.
Elsewhere on the economic front, data showing U.S. factory orders unexpected fell and U.S. services activity fell into contraction pointing to a slowing economic, stoking hopes of sooner rate cuts.
With just a couple days until the release of the nonfarm payrolls report, the ADP National Employment bulletin showed private payrolls increased by 150,000 jobs in June, below May's revised 157,000 growth, consistent with slowing labor market momentum.
Market participants see a 68% chance of the first rate cut in September, up from 58% last week, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
Paramount Global surges as Skydance closes in on movie studio deal, Constellation Brands Q1 sales miss
Paramount Global (NASDAQ:PARA) stock jumped over 11% after after Reuters reported that Shari Redstone's National Amusements has agreed to a preliminary deal to sell a controlling stake in the movie studio to David Ellison's Skydance Media.
Constellation Brands (NYSE:STZ) fell more than 3% after reporting first-quarter sales came that fell short of estimates and the beer and wine company also reaffirmed its outlook.
"We view these results as subpar but largely expected as consensus topline estimates ticked down throughout the quarter," Truist Securities said.
Energy stokes ride oil prices higher after massive draw in US crude inventories
Energy stocks were trending higher Wednesday, underpinned by rising oil prices after the Energy Information Administration reported that crude stocks fell by 12.2M barrels in the week ended Jun. 28, trouncing expectations for a draw of about 400,000 barrels.
Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KMI), Williams Companies Inc (NYSE:WMB) and Schlumberger NV (NYSE:SLB) were more than 1% higher.
Biden reportedly mulls dropping out of presidential race
On the political front, President Joe Biden is reportedly considering dropping out the presidential race against former President Donald Trump should concerns about his candidacy persist following a shaky performance in the recent presidential debate.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is widely believed to be first-choice alternative to Biden should the president choose to drop out of the race.
(Peter Nurse, Ambar Warrick contributed to this artcle.)